How I Improved My Copywriting Efficiency by 76.8%. Give or Take .008%.

There are tons apps to write faster, with more efficiency and with more focus. I’m sure they’re great. I have a few that I’ve never used. Penultimate. Pocket. Toilet Games. Wait, that’s my 4-year-old’s app.

Here’s how I’ve improved my copywriting efficiency, which may or may not tick off my bosses since my day job is billable by the hour. Before I leave my office at night, I write down my jobs for the next morning, in order of the time it takes to knock them out.

Note: Not in order of importance.

If you follow Dave Ramsey, you’re aware of what he calls the Debt Snowball. The gist is that overcoming debt is more of a behavioral science than mathematics. He asks that you start paying off debt with the smallest debt, not necessarily the debt with the highest interest rate. Once you knock out the smaller one, the snowball gets rolling, then you knock out the next largest.

Movement. Traction. Excitement.

This same premise works with advertising copywriting. If you write, you know the crushing pressure of a 16 page brochure. It stares you down and laughs at you for days. But then there’s that darn dealer eblast. It’s harmless, it’s cute, but still. It sits there.

I found that if I make that list of jobs (smallest to largest), then when I walk into my office, there’s no rummaging around. No coffee runs. No confusion. No pressure.

I knock out the wimpy little eblast and I survey my desk. I see that I’ve accomplished something. I’m a God. An advertising copywriting God. Lightning shall fly from my fingers!

Yes, that brochure will eventually kick me in gut, but I’ve got a bit of confidence. I took that eblast to the woodshed and I’m ready for a fight.